Much has changed in America since 2013, when Adelle Waldman published her first novel, “The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.,” a sharp-eyed comedy of manners about the singles scene among a group of writers in Brooklyn, New York. The exigencies of climate change and political and class divides have become more alarming, and the mood less frivolous.
Waldman, a reporter before she turned to fiction, has responded by shifting her attention to the world of low-wage workers at a big-box store in upstate New York. “Help Wanted,” her second novel, is sociologically astute, deeply humane, and cleverly plotted.
The book is informed by substantial research, including six months that Waldman spent working part time at a big-box store. She saw how such employment – with its unpredictable, unstable hours and lack of benefits and job security – makes it essentially impossible to earn a living wage.
Waldman animates her novel by profiling a sympathetic group of characters who are relegated to the four-hour shift that begins at 4 a.m. The Movement team, as it is called, is given an hour to unload and sort 1,900 boxes onto pallets. The workers’ next three hours are spent unpacking and shelving the merchandise on the sales floor. They’re occasionally scheduled for eight-hour overnight shifts to deal with the inevitable backlog. These extra hours beef up their earnings but wreak havoc on their schedules.
The workers are referred to as roaches “because they descended on the store in the dark of night, then scattered at eight, when the customers arrived.” Many head to second jobs to make ends meet. Others rush home to take over the care of their children so their partners or parents can make it to their jobs.
Trying to get ahead in these conditions is like making ice cream in a sauna.
Despite their varied personal histories, ethnicities, and domestic arrangements, the crew members are united in their disdain for their terrible manager, Meredith. They hatch a plan that just might improve their situation. It also lends Waldman’s novel cinematic appeal.
The novel’s large cast of characters is initially hard to keep straight, but individuals eventually come into sharper focus. These are people for whom a white-collar job at a call center is a reach. They rue their screw-ups and missed opportunities, but they are willing to work hard for a fair shake.
Most important, they all have hopes and dreams. When they realize that a possible promotion for Meredith, their reviled supervisor, could open up a full-time position in their department, their aspirations shift into high gear. Anyone who’s had the misfortune of being singled out for ridicule by Meredith knows that she’s not management material. But it dawns on the Movement team that the promotion would get her off their backs. Her subordinate would move into her vacated slot, leaving his own full-time position up for grabs. The workers decide it will be in their interest to endorse Meredith’s promotion.
We learn just how much the extra pay and validation of a full-time position would mean to each of them. Val, the driving force behind the group’s scheme, struggled with homelessness after fleeing her abusive father in her teens. Now she lives with her wife and their small child in her grandmother’s house in exchange for taking care of her. Like several colleagues, she hopes to be able to afford her own home someday.
Diego landed at the store after working at a McDonald’s and, until 9/11, a more promising job in a corporate dining room on the 53rd floor of the World Trade Center. He dreams of being able to afford auto loan payments; owning a car would enable him to access better second jobs.
Sadly, each of these characters gradually realizes why they might not be eligible for promotion, even if they are successful in dislodging Meredith. Travis is a phenomenal worker, but he’s served several prison terms for trusting the wrong people. Ruby lacks the necessary education credential. Val, “a rabble-rouser by temperament,” has some black marks on her record for shooting off her mouth.
In the venerable tradition of social novels such as Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” and Charles Dickens’ “Hard Times,” “Help Wanted” draws attention to moral issues raised by systemic exploitation of the working poor. The marvel is that Waldman manages to do so with an engaging, lightly satirical touch.
